chicken

Three California-based Foster Farms chicken processing facilities linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 278 people in 17 states will remain open after company officials said they would make changes to their operations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday. Earlier this week, the USDA had threatened the facilities with closure if the company didn’t come up with a plan for making substantive improvements. In a letter to the company, the USDA warned that sanitary conditions at the facility …

News, discoveries and fun … 1. Those stories were wrong: Jack Nicholson isn’t retiring after all … at least not from the movies. (Learn more at Vanity Fair) 2. The Saiga, an endangered species of antelope that looks like something out of the bar scene in Star Wars, is making a comeback. (Learn more at National Geographic) 3. More than 90 percent of Americans routinely throw out perfectly good food because they think it’s no longer safe to eat. (Learn more …

Everyone from chefs to health experts to the first lady has touted eating locally grown food, praising it for its freshness because it doesn’t have to travel far to get to consumers. Which is why it was stunning to learn this month that chickens raised and slaughtered in the U.S. may soon be sent for cooking and processing to China, then sent back to the U.S. to be sold in fast-food restaurants and supermarkets. Sign up for the AARP Health …

News, discoveries and fun … 1. Rinsing raw chicken doesn’t get rid of bacteria; it just spreads the germs. (Learn more at AARP) 2. Santa Claus doesn’t get jury duty. (Learn more at Yahoo) 3. In Britain, it takes just 58 minutes, on average, for a newborn’s picture to appear on social media. (Learn more at The Telegraph) 4. Plain toast for breakfast can make you fat. (Learn more at AARP) 5. A 93-year-old Brit broke his own world record as the world’s oldest “wing walker.” (Learn more …

Just about every cookbook icon, from Julia Child to Martha Stewart to the Joy of Cooking’s Rombauer sisters, has told us to rinse off our raw chicken before preparing it. Guess what? They were wrong, scientists say. Rinsing raw chicken to get rid of the bacteria just spreads it around more, increasing our risk of getting sick, says food-safety researcher Jennifer Quinlan, with Drexel University in Philadelphia and one of the developers behind a new “Don’t Wash Your Chicken!” campaign. …

It’s a bit unsettling to note the possible demise of yet another familiar face that boomers grew up with. And it doesn’t make it any easier that he’s actually been dead for more than 30 years. The Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal and other news outlets report that KFC, the fast-food chain formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, is launching a restaurant that doesn’t feature its venerable founder, Colonel Harland Sanders. The convivial southern gentleman with the frosty goatee, clad in his trademark white …